Bad Politics

This chapter examines Rome’s problematic military record during the closing decades of the second century B.C.E. and the increasing use of trials and other public venues both to call attention to defeats and to challenge senatorial and individual assertions of definitive success. In particular, it discusses the honors and triumphs accumulated by Rome’s leading families against foes who would shortly thereafter re-emerge as military threats, and considers the growing impression of popular dissatisfaction that develops in this period. It explores the unfavorable contrasts between the Roman experience of the Second Punic War and the conflicts of this period, such as the Jugurthine War. The chapter concludes with the commemorative strategies employed by C. Marius and Q. Lutatius Catulus during and after the Cimbric War, comparing their historiographic legacies and the broader implications of their choices for the Roman Republic.

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